What's the worst decision you made when rebuilding a bike?

[antoni]

Fitting fibre washers to the main retaining nut on a 50s AMC primary chaincase. It became loose (it would wouldn't it?) and vibration/movement of the whole chaincase caused ...err... problems.

[TGR90B]

Are you asking a question, making a statement, or what?

[antoni]

I asked a question in the title of the thread and gave an example answer in the body of the first post.

Admittedly it's not a very funny answer but just goes to show that if you deviate from the design of the bike, you become a test-pilot, whether you want to be or not. The fibre washers may have helped with oil loss, or not, but did invite the nut to become loose in the presence of the normal vibration present.

Does anyone have any (amusing or otherwise) stories where there was a bad consequence of a decision?

We might even learn something!

[mini-me]

No reason a fibre washer there would cause the nut to work loose if you used a plain washer on top of it. Its what I do on mine, never had a problem. Those chaincases shoud not leak oil from there anyway, not more than a tea cup of oil should be in it.

In over 50 years of rebuilding old bikes I have made too many mistakes to write out here.

Its how I learnt.

I wish I had learnt never to spend money on lost causes 49 years ago though.

[antoni]

....too many mistakes to write out....

Any interesting ones we might all benefit from?

Anybody?

C'mon, be brave!

[mini-me]

I went into the motorcycle business for myself and found out what a lot of tight fisted ignorant pillocks were on old bikes.

That was over 40 years ago, from reading some bike forums [no names no pack drill] it would appear nothing changed.

So there you are, worst decision I ever made.

[antoni]

I had nothing to be tight fisted with when I was 16! Pocket money only.

I remember breaking the glass of a failed rear light lamp and soldering whatever small bulb I could find (MES probably) onto the 'prongs' of it.

I really did do that, to get a pile-of-shite moped through the MoT at Taggs in Sutton. It worked - so not really a bad decision...

[mini-me]

I was working at 16,apprentice wages.what you did was resourceful, nothing wrong with that.

not like sitting on 5 Vincent twins and moaning about the cost of a very scarce,[back then] piston.

[Rex]

One of the things about the VMCC's current recruitment drive of attracting the younger enthusiasts (by trying to tell them that affordable old Commie-era shite like MZs etc are really fun to ride) is that those doing the telling are, again, probably sitting on five Vins in the garage.
If you're so worried about the future of the VMCC than move some of your bikes on and get the market moving.

[mini-me]

me and the VMCC fell   out a long time ago when I realised it was merely a club for a select few.

[john.k]

Damn right about the five Vins........vice pres holds up a letter.."Heres a letter from a young enthusiast ,cant afford a bike ,I think maybe if some of "us" might give the lad something to start with...Not me ,obviously , but some of you who have a large surplus of stuff."......Yeah ,right......and then ...."look ,youve got too much on your plate".....I say ,mate ,coupla old bikes ,you joking ?........Ive had three D9Hs in pieces,thats when youve got too much ,and I mean in pieces ,stripped down to the bare frames to get the housings and track frames repaired.

[Oggers]

The answer of course is not to start with a hopeless design in the first place. I loathe pressed steel chaincases. Matchless G9 would just not seal at all - tried everything. Ariel and Triumph with cast chaincases - no problems whatsoever. I have previously wired in a regulator the wrong way round  - and promptly fried it when trying to start, and spent days sorting out brakes and scratching my head when it was head bearings all along. Mistakes are fine though - as long as you learn from them. I always try and obtains a decent workshop manual, ask for advice if unsure, and take things slowly and methodically. Always bag everything uo, label it, and take lots of photos.

[mini-me]

 Groan......... that old chestnut, amc steel chaincases.

I have been riding AMC singles for as long as I have been riding. Had one for 55 yrs, It's chaincase does not leak because it is properly assembled.
Only two problems,
#1 people who have been told they can't fix it by someone who does not know.
#2 people who think they can but won't listen to someone who really knows so they fail anyway.

[iansoady]

The same is true of the Norton pressed steel chaincase. In good order, with a proper seal and correctly fitted, they don't leak. They can however be tricky to dismantle if someone has used copious quantities of silicone......

[mini-me]

Bagging each nut ?

I was once given to restore a 1937 AJS 18T, it had been stolen, sold on and recovered. I got it in pieces.
each nut, bolt ,spacer was in a grubby little bag labelled..."nut which goes on the bottom of the thing by the footrest," and so on in that fashion.

pathetic, so glad we got it back before that well meaning amateur really got to grips with it.

If you cannot understand that one 5/16 nut is much the same animal where ever it was on the bike, FFS leave the bloody thing alone.

That one reason why unrestored bikes fetch a premium.

One sure fire tip, if the seller says  about the bike  "I done it up conkers mate"   just run away. you can see such efforts on ebay "restored to its former glory, just needs finishing"